


careful where you stand

by serenitysea



Series: bloodsport [3]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen, basically coulson is still the smartest person in the nine realms, but skye doesn't care and she likes to yell a lot, coulson is sneaky the way a shield director should be, part of the bloodsport series, skye hates secrets but goes ahead and keeps a few of her own
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-23
Updated: 2014-05-23
Packaged: 2018-01-26 06:52:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1678805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serenitysea/pseuds/serenitysea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The one where Coulson delivers a file of information to Skye and turns her world upside down.</p><p>(Or, the one where Coulson behaves exactly like a Director of SHIELD should, and Skye finds herself questioning everything she knows about Grant Ward.) </p><p>part of the bloodsport series.</p>
            </blockquote>





	careful where you stand

**Author's Note:**

> You know how I like to come at things from different angles... this is Skye's angle, and what drives her to leave the new SHIELD base and why she takes Ward with her. Like pieces solving a puzzle. 
> 
> Also, because I imagine Coulson and Skye fighting _a lot_ despite the fact that he is the new Director of SHIELD.

_careful where you stand, my love_   
_careful where you lay your head_   
_it's true_   
_we're always looking out for one another_

careful where you stand | coldplay

* * *

They are in Coulson's office and two shades shy of a full-on shouting match. (Agents in the neighboring corridors are already placing bets on who will win.)

"I don't understand how you can just forgive him!" She slams her hands down on the desk in aggravation. "He nearly _killed_ Fitz and Simmons. And you didn't _see_ the fight with May."

Coulson gives her a reproving look. "May can hold her own against Ward and everyone knows it. I just," he pinches the bridge of his nose as if trying to relieve a headache, "See things differently."

Skye has been through too much lately (and is running on far too little sleep) for her poker face to be more than halfway functional. He can read the frustration and anger she feels and knows that it is out of respect for him that she is not taking the argument further. Despite everything that has happened, she is still learning to become a good agent and part of that means that sometimes you don't always agree with what your superiors are telling you. (It would be a little heartbreaking if it weren't true -- and if she hadn't just been yelling at the top of her lungs.)

When Skye remains stubbornly quiet, he frowns briefly. "You haven't mentioned anything about what Ward did to you."

Her look is somewhat incredulous, like she can't believe he's bringing this up in the first place. "What he did to me is _nothing_ compared to the rest of the team."

"Do you really believe that?"

Skye doesn't openly glare at him, but it is a very near thing. Coulson would ordinarily love to see this kind of fire in his formerly wayward hacker but hates the root cause behind her anger. He won't push her any further on this issue (at least not today) but they both know it will need to be addressed eventually.

(The worst scars are always the ones you can't see. He would know.)

* * *

The thing about Coulson: He never makes decisions that he knows will benefit a person in the long run if there is an opportunity for said person to make that decision on their own.

For example: Coulson obtained Ward's file and encouraged her to read it. He never said she had to read it. He didn't say anything would happen if she refused to read it. Just left it for her to make the call.

(Naturally her curiosity got the best of her and she couldn't leave it unread -- but maybe for a less impulsive person, they might have stood a chance at leaving it alone.)

And of course, a file is only as strong as the contents within. So thereafter, Skye made it her mission to review video logs, transcripts, interviews and -- perhaps most compelling -- the footage from Mike Peterson's ocular feed while on the Bus with Ward.

(This doesn't clear up anything and in fact, makes her life so much more complicated.)

* * *

Things Skye knows (and also does not know):

\- Garrett is a horrible monster of a human being. If Coulson hadn't killed him (again) with the 084 from Peru, she personally would have found another way to destroy him. In fact, she wouldn't have minded if the first few attempts didn't work and she needed to revisit dismemberment and death upon him. (If that doesn't make her much better than him, she doesn't care. At least she still has a _soul_ when she wakes up in the morning.)

\- Ward is lost. He seemed alternately conflicted and steady when receiving orders from Garrett -- sometimes they served to calm him down and give him purpose -- other times had him near manic with distress and she cannot find a trace of the man who taught her how to cross-jab in the cargo bay of the Bus. (It's almost as if they are two different people; Agent Ward of SHIELD and Grant Ward: affiliation unknown.) She wants to say that the man who didn't back down from the fourth round of Battleship is the same one who nearly lost his mind when Garrett gave the orders to kill FitzSimmons, but it is too raw of a situation to think objectively upon. She cannot forgive him for nearly killing ~~their family~~ her closest friends.

\- Raina is a freak. (Seriously, all she talks about is 'The End' and 'Monsters.') There is one particularly chilling conversation she has with Ward before leaving about him bringing her (Skye) in and the two of them being monsters together. Skye has absolutely no idea what she's talking about or what her role is in all of this but the fact that Ward neglected to mention it in any of his interviews with Coulson or May makes her a little uneasy. In all fairness, it probably isn't a normal conversation to be having, but there is something about that woman that creeps Skye out.

\- Last (but not least), if Ward agreed with Raina and wanted to bring her in, he certainly wouldn't gone about it that way. Skye knows enough of how he operates ( _used_ to operate and the way he was when they flew the Bus unsupervised) that if he wanted her (and this part makes her very uncomfortable to dwell on) he _would have gotten her_. Instead, he kept up the annoying but trite "villain of the day" monologue and unknowingly helped buy her time to allow May to get into position. The thing is, though: Ward is a specialist. Specialists do their job and don't make mistakes. His actions that day were _deliberate_. Skye isn't sure exactly what all of that means, just that parts of a picture are forming and it doesn't look as black and white as it used to. ( _…Damn it_ , Coulson.)

* * *

Coulson makes the raid on a Hydra facility without informing her.

She can't run comms or help scramble their (admittedly meager) field ops team into cover positions because he goes in the middle of the night and makes sure he is back by the time she has her usual breakfast with Trip.

Trip is a smart enough man to recognize when something is afoot, because he glances at the look on her face and immediately makes his excuses to leave. Skye allows it without causing a scene (partially because she needs to get her feelings under control and also because while she cares about Trip and considers him an honorary member of their team -- he hasn't quite yet earned the right to be in the middle of a shouting match.)

"You know about the raid," Coulson starts, seating himself behind a desk that doesn't look totally unlike the one in his office on the Bus.

"No thanks to you," Skye bites out, throwing herself into the chair in front of the desk. "You didn't tell us where you were going. What if something had happened?"

"May knew what was going on. She would have handled it."

" _Not_ good enough."

"Skye --"

"-- I've got one person in my family who is suffering from a combination of survivor's guilt and PSTD from almost drowning. Another who is on life support and may never wake up. The last one has rage issues and hate-fu; and fine, I respect that. But you're the most adjusted out of all of us -- I can't lose you, too."

"I'm not going anywhere just yet." Something softens in Coulson's demeanor and he leans forward intently. "What Garrett enabled Raina to do was just the beginning of something bigger. I didn't mean to upset you but I had to see how far her reach extended."

"How bad is it?"

"It's definitely not good." Coulson has always had a gift for the art of the understatement. He takes a moment to compose himself. "Skye, Garrett had Raina's synthesized version of GH-325 and he went _insane_."

"So what does that mean? Are we time bombs?"

Coulson shifts uncomfortably. "I don't know."

"Well." Skye smiles brightly. "That's comforting."

* * *

Because she hasn't totally lost her touch, Skye waits until she is finished with Coulson before hacking the remainder of the feed from last midnight's operation. It appears to be business per usual for the bulk of the video -- in fact, it isn't until she is about to log off and delete the evidence that she sees the flowers.

Hundreds of lilacs, gardenias and callalilies scattered across the surface of every workplace, shelf and cubbyhole. She instantly wants to throw up. Instead, she forces herself to finish watching and sits back against the bed with a pit in her stomach. The pit grows until it bottoms out completely at the sight of orchids.

Skye has always hated orchids. They remind her of something bad (she isn't sure what) and she basically wants to set them on fire. As satisfying as that would be, she needs to stow it away until she can decide what to do next. The new base is eerily quiet and the new Koenig is too much like his predecessor for her to really relax.

There is only one person who can answer her questions. One person who can fill in the missing pieces to this puzzle.

It takes a very long time for her to fall asleep.

* * *

When she wakes up the next morning, there is a perfect orchid sitting on her ledge.

Bile rises in her throat and she has to close her eyes and ruthlessly force down the panic that is flooding her system.

So, to review, (just in case she didn't get the message from the bad feelings she had after watching that video): She isn't safe here.

* * *

There is one stop she has to make before she leaves. (Appearances are everything in this business.) Besides, there is no way Coulson would ever let her go by herself.

(She wonders if Ward has any idea she is coming and decides it doesn't matter. They have to leave. The rest can be figured out later. Planning was always more of his forte anyway.)

She needs answers and won't risk bringing any one else into this disaster -- he is probably the only one who has the knowledge combined with the skills to keep them both alive in the process. And she is better off meeting this head on rather than waiting for it to catch up to her and killing the people she loves along the way.

She simply has to make him think it was his idea in the first place. It doesn't hurt that she can still get under his skin like no other. It's a skill, and good agents make use of every skill they have when completing a mission. She plans to be a _very_ good agent.

(Ward always taught her to keep her opponent on their toes.)

One headstrong rookie with impulse control problems, coming right up.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> Exotic flowers (Orchids, specifically) = Raina.
> 
> I'm still working on _bloodsport_ and have finally figured out which way I want it to go. The thing has taken on a mind of its own. I'm going to try and finish the second part over the weekend while I have some time off to write. Thanks for bearing with me!


End file.
